Savory Pie hmm hmm hmm

Today Paul and I made Pie yayy!! My only verdict for making things are only to use up dying food. It was my first real food that I've eaten since school started. School is quite hectic and I barely have any time for anything.

We used a vegweb recipe for the pie crust I found it really oil though. When Paul made the pie crust it pooled on the bottom of the pan.

Recipe
1 Baked pie Crust from Vegweb
1 Medium Onion
1 Shallot
2 Cloves Garlic
1 Bunch of Watercress
1 Bunch of Spinach
A handful of Amaranth Leaves ( Yeen Choy)
Tofu
2 1/2 + 1 1/2 Tbsp Vegan Oyster Sauce
10 oz Froze Firm Tofu, Thawed
1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder
Salt for taste
Oil for sauteing

• Rough chop and wash the watercress, spinach and amaranth leaves. If you don't have amaranth leaves just substitute with spinach.
• Slice the onions, shallots and garlic.
• Squeeze out the excess water from the tofu and crumble them into a separate bowl and mix in the 1 1/2 Tbsp of Vegan oyster sauce, garlic powder and salt for tasting.
  
• Preheat the oven to 450 F.
  
• Pour some oil onto a pan and heat it up on high heat. Add the onions and lower the heat to medium and saute the onion for two minutes, a little before the onions are cooked thoroughly. Then add in the shallots and garlic and saute for another minute.
  
• Add in the leafy green mixture and saute them until they start to wilt. Then add in the 2 1/2 Tbsp of vegan oyster sauce and enough salt to taste.
• Add in the tofu mixture into the pan. It should absorb all the excess water from the leafy greens.
  
• Continue to saute the food until all the water is absorbed by the tofu and remove from heat.
• Pour the mixture into the baked crust and placed the pie into the oven and bake it for 20-25 minutes. We made some decoration for the top of the pie so we baked until the extra pie crust on top turned golden.
  

3rd Attempt in Making Mooncake

I've used Lily's Wai Sek Hong's recipe for the Golden syrup since I was not able to find it in my local Asian market and I used Do What I Like's Mooncake Skin.

My first two attempt in making the mooncake skin was a failure. The consistency was crucial. It was something I could not get right due to the golden syrup. It would've been better if I had the golden syrup. The reason for all the failed attempt in making the mooncake skin was because of the golden syrup. I followed the instruction and boiled the sugar mixture until it was golden brown and when the syrup cooled down, it was really thick and hard like carmel so it made the skin way too hard and unmaleable. What I found out by the 3rd attemp was to boil it until it's slightly golden. A little lighter than vegetable oil. The texture of the mooncake skin dough is suppose to be very soft and maleable like bread dough except not gluteny. If the dough is breaking apart and crumbling, DON'T ADD MORE FLOUR!! Only add more flour if the mixture is still too sticky.



With all the failed attempts with the mooncake skin, I made them into cookies yay!! They were pretty good except for the cookies from the first failed attempt since I burnt them!!



Another unpredictable mistake that I had was the filling. I bought premade red bean paste, sesame paste and lotus paste in a can. The red bean and sesame paste were way too soft to roll the filling into balls. It just made a sticky mess on my hand. I tried freezing it, it helped but it made my mooncake skin cold and it tore easily. I mixed the sesame paste with peanut butter a 2 to 1 ratio but it was still too soft. It was much harder than the red bean paste.

The star had the lotus filling which had the correct consistency. The pig had the sesame and peanut butter paste. The cow had the red bean paste. You can tell in the pictures that as the consistency got softer, there were more breakage in the pastry skin. By the time I got to the red bean paste mooncakes the skin was blotched in red.




During the baking process the gravity pulled both the sesame & peanut butter mooncake and the red bean mooncake down so it looked as if it melted. I recommend to make your own paste if you were to make mooncake with filling other than lotus paste. If you decide to use canned red bean paste and black bean paste just reduce it on low-medium heat until it's thick enough for you to roll into a ball with your hands.

Inari

School has started...great. Summer passed by so quickly.

I made some Whole Wheat bread and I used a folding technique to knead my very very wet dough. Accord to the Fresh loaf, "the wetter the better". It's nearly impossible to knead wet bread since it'll stick all over your finger so that's where the folding method comes in. It came out very coarse so beats me. I must readjust some more. Yay!!

Mooncakee!! The mid autumn festival is coming well it's already the 2nd day. It's suppose to be on Sept 14th. Im going to make myself some vegan mooncakes. Im going to try the bing pei which is the one made with cooked glutinous rice flour (koh fun) and I'm going to try to make the traditional Cantonese baked mooncake. No salted duck eggs obviously :] If i have time I'll try to make the jelly mooncake which is made with agar agar. I'm so excited but with school and possibly observation for my secondary class, I'm quite scared I won't be able to make it on time.

Lots of salad

Long Week


Since last week of Friday my b/f and Moses has been redoing an apartment in Brooklyn. It took us four days to finish and during one of those days we went to an authentic vegan Caribbean Restaurant. It was awesome. My b/f and Moses ordered the vegan hamburger but I bought my own lunch for that day. I made mushroom rice. The employees made the burgers fresh there. It was awesome. It wasn't like those frozen patty that they heated up, it was fresh. I took a bite out of my b/f's and it has a very delicious special sauce coating it. I couldn't help myself staring at all the baked goods so I bought myself a Cassava Pone and I bought my b/f a coconut roll but it wasn't the traditional coconut roll. It was colored by beets.


We worked Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. On sunday we went to the beach with a group of friend. I bought in the Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches from the FatFreeVegan blog. I think it tasted great but I don't think my other friends really liked the taste of nutritional yeast. :/ I can't force them. It's just that I have to pick better choices of vegan food they are more fond and use to.


Yesterday I bought some food to a picnic with my b/f but it was raining so we ate it in the car. I made some macaroni and cheese from VegWeb. I thought it tasted ok but it wasn't cheesy enough for your regular maracroni and cheese but it was pretty decent. I also made some garbanzo and black bean salad.


Yields 4 Serving 194 Cal/ Serving

8 oz Garbanzo Beans, Cooked and Drained
7 oz Black Beans, Cooked and Drained
1 Handful of Spinach
1 Handful of Amaranth ( Or just another handful of Spinach)
1/3 Cup Scallions, Chopped
1/4 Cup Cilantro, Minced
1 1/2 Tbsp Basil, Minced
1 Tsp Fresh Lime Juice
1 Lemon Boy Tomato, Chopped (I used it for color since it's very yellow. You can use a regular beefsteak tomato)
10 Grape Tomatoes (Also used for color)
6 Green Olives
Salt and Pepper to taste

Green and Brown Goodness

Vegetarian Times Vegan Thumbprint cookies


My boyfriend wanted to buy some Pepperidge Farm Verona cookies which are totally not vegan but he is not a vegan yet but he trying. I know he wasn't going to buy it but nevertheless, I felt bad and I told him I'll make him some vegan thumbprint cookies since apparently this current September issue of Vegetarian Times happens to have a recipe vegan thumbprint cookies.

I found the cookie to be quite tasty but before the initial bite there was a strong aroma of soy/tofu. I think it's just from the Soy Garden Earth Balance margarine I used. I also found the cookie to be a bit softer than how I hoped it to be. I used mayhaw jam rather than the traditional raspberry jam. I only had the mayhaw one at the time.

The thumbprint cookies does not even really resemble a thumbprint cookie. It looks more like a jam filled cookie. I know my boyfriend LOVES jam, well filling in general. He over does it many of the time so I decided to over do it just for him. Rather than giving the cookie a cute little thumb indentation, it was more like a huge TOE indentation. I over filled the middle with jam and it kinda spread during the baking process. Oh wells.

Yields 36 cookies 76 Cal/Cookies
1 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Salt
3/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Margarine, Room Temperature
1/3 Cup Vanilla Soymilk
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 Tsp Almond Extract
1 Cup Raspberry Jam [ Use any, Apricot taste good as well ]

• Sift and combine all the flour, baking powder and salt together in a big bowl.
  
• Beat the sugar and margarine together.
• Then slowly beat in the soymilk, vanilla and almond extract.
• Beat ind the flour mixture until everything is well combined
• Wrap the bowl in plastic wrap and chill it in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.
  
• Preheat the oven to 325 F.
  
• Take the dough out and roll it into 36 balls and place it onto a greased cookie sheet or parchment paper lined onto of the cookie sheet.
• Gently flatten the the ball of dough a bit and make an indentation with your thumb.
  
• Put the cookie sheet back into the refrigerator.
• Pour the jam into a bowl and break up the big chunk of jam with a fork.
• Then place pur the jam into a pastry bag or a zip lock bag with a hole slit on a corner.
• Take out your cookies and fill the indentations with the jam.
  
• Place it into the oven and bake it for 12 to 15 minutes or or until lightly browned.
• Cool the cookies on a cooling rack.
  

Fat Free Vegan Can't be Beet Chocolate Cake

I got this recipe off of FatfreeVegan. I wanted to get rid of some of the beets that I had in my fridge. These little cupcakes were really delicious but I found it to be a bit too chocolaty. This cake were moist and not dense despite the fact that it was made up of mainly whole wheat flour. I wanted to get rid of the baby food that were in my cupboard so I used that instead of the apple sauce and I also reduced the sugar from 1 Cup to 3/4 Cup. I found the cupcakes to be sweet enough but my boyfriend thought that it was very subtle and would preferred it to be sweeter. He described it as eating very dark chocolate. I made them as cupcakes since it were much easier for me to eat and I gave more than half away to my boyfriend since I'm the only one in my family who eats vegan food, chocolaty food and sweet food. I would never be able to finish it.

Avocado Amaranth CousCous for 1 Person

I don't normally post meal recipe since I'm never measure anything I just eyeball it so the measurements for this will obviously be from eyeballing. I hate it that I am the only one eating. My parents thinks that because I am vegan I don't have much to eat want so they don't eat my food even though I offer it to them. They also don't like any other type of food other than Chinese. I always end up with so much leftover and I hate that so this recipe should be enough for one person. I still think it's more than enough for one person. It's like for one and a half person. This dish is a bit Chinese and a bit Middle Eastern. I believe that's where it originated. I have never seen amaranth leaves sold anywhere else except for the Chinese market so if there aren't any amaranth leaves available, you can use spinach.

In Cantonese it's called Yeen Choy (莧菜). Amaranth is also called Chinese spinach and there are two varieties. There are the white and red. The white are just the regular green leaf but the red one has purple in the middle of the leaf and the purple branches outwards. When you blanch the red amaranth, the water turns purple like beets. Amaranth are very high Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium and iron. There is up to 28% Calcium and 17% iron in one cup of amaranth. That's how much I can grab with my chopstick at one time and I tend to reach for my amaranth several times cause I love it oh so much.

Yields 1 serving/ 289 Cal per Serving
1/4 Cup CousCous
1/4 Cup Vegetable Broth

2 Big Shallots, Finely Diced
1 Clove of Garlic, Minced
Handful of Amaranth, Rinsed and Roughly Chopped [You can use Spinach]
2 Tsp Thai Basil, Minced [ You can use Basil ]
2 Tsp Cilantro, Minced
2 Strand of Green Onions, Finely chopped
1/3 Stalk of Celery, Finely Diced
1/4 Avocado, Diced
5 Grape tomatoes, Quartered
1 -1 1/2 Tbsp Tomato Sauce or enough to lightly coat everything.
Salt for tasting

• Lightly spray a nonstick pan with oil and cook the shallots on medium heat for about 3 minutes.
  
• Add in the garlic and continue to cook until the shallots are transparent.
• Then add in the amaranth and cook until they are dark green. Then put it in a dish and set it aside.
  
• Cook the couscous with the vegetable broth in the same pan as the onions until all the broth is gone. Please watch carefully since there is very little couscous and moisture, it will easily burn.
• Fluff it up with a fork and mix the shallot and garlic into the couscous.
• Lightly toss in the basil, cilantro, leek, celery, tomatoes and avocado.
  
• Add in the salt and tomato sauce and lightly coat everything. I used tomato and basil flavored tomato sauce.
  

Hoe Down

The Hoe Down at Farm Sanctuary was awesome. As we were arriving to Farm Sanctuary, we witness one of the most beautiful sunset. We had to stop in the middle of the road and get out to take pictures. Thank goodness there were no other cars on the road. It was so empty and relaxing.

We saw many cute little animals and we were allowed to pet and see most of the animals with the exceptions of those who were quarantined due to illness or not used to human contacts.


The staff working at farm sanctuary said that they rescued 69 gestation pigs from Iowa during the Iowa flood. It was so sad. Even during the time of a natural disaster, the farmers rushed to collect their corns to take with them but apparently they dont do the same for the pigs. They just left them behind because they were not worth as much as the corn. The majority of the pigs were died but those who managed to get free were shot down by the people on the levy because they were afraid that the heavy pigs would destroy the levy when they try to climb onto the levy. The people were the one who breeds the poor pigs to be so large that many of them get knee and feet problems as they get older.

Turkeys gooble gooble. It's so sad. Many turkeys get their beaks microwaved so that the tip of the beaks die and it it eventually will drop off. The same procedure is used to destroy their toes so that they don't peak or claw each other to death. They also get their snood teared off as a little baby chick. It's so terrible. They are also bred to gain a lot of weight in a short period of time and many of them can not work due to the weight problem and the missing toes. They can't even fly when they fall. People are so terrible.

That goat is Brooklyn and the guy petting it, is my b/f Paul. The name of the goat speaks for itself. It was recovered from Brooklyn, NY from a live goats and lamb market. The lucky little goat was abel to escape death. Thank goodness.

Baa baa black sheep have you any wool yes sir yes sir three bags full. One for the master, one for the dame, one for the boy who lives down lane. Many of these sheep are used for wool and like the other farm animals, they are bred to be a specific way. These wool sheep were bred to have folded skin so that there would be more surface area to produce wool. The folded skin causes the caretaker to accidentally shave off parts of the skin. The sheep were also bred to produce so much wool that they can not even shed for themselves. Boo wool. Boycott wool!!

Moo mooo. Cows are so cute but a few were a bit aggressive. They were busy munching on their grass.
The Farm Sanctuary staff said most of their bunnies were rescued from a breeder. The breeder's neighbor saw how bad the conditions were and managed to convince her to turn them in. Another half were recovered from experimental laboratories.

We also attended a nature hike where Geoge Eisman was the speaker. It wasn't much of a hike. We just walked behind the People Barn hahaha. We we learned that those disgusting weed growing on your lawn is very edible and nutritious.

Dandelions - You can eat the whole flower including the flowers and the white seeds when it becomes old. The only thing is that the leaves would become more bitter after it flowers but it's still edible.

Red/White Clovers - The whole plant is edible. It's also very nutritious too so you can chuck some into your salad.

Plantain Plants - Do you remember these big huge plants growing on your lawn?! They are so annoying but also very good for you. Like the other three plants. The whole plant is edible but I'm not sure about the roots though. The leaves are good for cuts and minor injuries so just grab a leaf and chew it to make a paste and then place it on your wound. The seeds can also be used to thicken soup and not only that, they are good for your digestive system. It's a natural laxative. They are sold in stores under the name psyllium. Instead of paying $5 dollars for a small bottle, you can collect your own.

Beware though. You should becareful of pesticide spraying so just call your park's department and what not to make sure before you go out to collect your goodies.

Preparing for Farm Sanctuary Hoe Down

Yay! My b/f, two other friends and I are going to the Farm Sanctuary for the hoe down. We're going to go there early to set up camp. My two other friends are omnivores and my b/f has converted to vegetarian. He is going to slowly transition to a vegan. We've made food and other needs for the trip. I've tried making lemongrass essential oil but it smells sweet so I don't know if I made it correctly.

Since there will be no showers for the campers, I made my own body wipes/baby wipes. Here's the recipe.

Vegan Baby/Body Wipes



2 Cup Warm Water
2 Tbsp Tea Tree Oil Castile Soup [You might want to use something less foamy]
2 Tbsp Aloe Vera Gel
1 Tsp Baking Soda or 3/4 Tsp Vinegar
Few Drops of Fragrance or Essential Oil

30 sheets of Basic Bounty [Not sure if regular bounty will absorb more so just experiment]

• Mix all the ingredients in the order listed in a plastic ziploc bag or a tupperware except for the paper towels.
• Swish the liquid ingredients around.
• Put the paper towels in the liquid and make sure all the paper absorbs the liquid. Check to see if the middle is still dried or not.

Herbal Properties

Tea tree oil - It is claimed to be good for acne, blackheads and repelling mosquitoes. It fight against certain bacteria and fungi.
Aloe Vera Gel - It is claimed to moisturize and sooth skin.
Baking Soda - It cleans, deodorizes, relieve itches and sooths the skin
Apple Cider Vinegar - It's also very similar to tea tree oil. It's good against rashes, sores, insect bites, acne, poison ivy and poison oak.

Sources:
Tea Tree Oil Uses
Wikipedia - Aloe Vera
Lamas Beauty
Amazine

Hot Chili Recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance


I used TVP instead. I had my TVP stored in my cupboard for more than half a year but my main reason is because I'm too lazy to make seitan. I realized I didn't have beans so I had to rollerblade to the grocery store to get some BEEEAAANN. I haven't rollerbladed in years, so I was the crazy girl wobbling down the sidewalk trying to kill people. The hot chili will be heated up in the camp fire on a nice hot summery day so we can sweat like crazy as we get bitten by mosquito. Isn't that a the life.


Kick Ass Carrot Cupcake from Recipezaar

It's called the Eggless Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcake. We made it early this week but my b/f forgot the sugar so we ate it as is but it tasted great without the sugar too because of the spices. I think it would taste great as a savory cupcake. Hahahah. It was actually more like a muffin.

Day with lots of green and lots of orange

Green Tea Noodle with Spinach Cilantro Pesto and Artichokes


Tomorrow I have jury duty. It's my first experience and I didn't know that I would be there long enough to eat lunch so I have the option of bringing or buying my lunch. I know the neighborhood is not vegan friendly at all so I am bringing my own. I just bought some fresh spinach and cilantro so I wanted to use it while it's fresh. I was skimming through Veganomicon and found the perfect recipe, Spinach Linguine with Basil Cilantro Pesto and Artichoke. Instead of using the basil and spinach linguine, I used the spinach and green tea noodles. I also used some frozen artichoke instead and grab a handful of chopped spinach.

BBQ TVP Wrap
My boy friend and I also made some delicious BBQ TVP wraps. My boyfriend is unknown to the world of TVP so we made some today the BBQ Pomegranate Tofu recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. We obviously didn't tofu. We followed the recipe pretty through and thought except we used onions instead of shallots and we used a bit more than the recipe suggested. We didn't reconstitute the TVP instead we let it simmer in the delicious BBQ sauce so it can absorb even more flavor. We added the TVP after all the ingredients were added and combined to make the BBQ sauce and we threw in a cup of huge TVP chunks and we cooked it for about 15 minutes. Then we let it gently simmer with the lid on for about 20 minutes so that we don't lose even more moister. Just check it occasionally to see if it is sticking or burning. Then we uncovered it and we cooked it for about 5 more minutes. We served it on a tortilla wrap with some cucumbers and tomatoes. Nothing special but the TVP tasted great! Too bad we didn't take any photos.

Long while

It's been a long while since I've posted. I'm very sorry but I've been so caught up with school and once summer hit, I continued to take summer classes but now I have more time. I haven't really been baking or cooking as much. I have been relying mostly on my dad and eating junk food. :X Not the best in the world but when time is limited I guess that all I can do.


Now the new peen tong in the Asian market is being supplied by xun wua, mandarin = xin hua (新華) The new peen tong is now called Brown sugar rather than Brown Candy in the Weekend getaway the ingredients used in this peen tong is just sugar cane and water. The sugar is not processed or purified, hence the brown color. It's around $.080 $1.00 per 400g so it's a pretty decent price if you are a frugal vegan like me. It comes with a hefty price. It's a long slab so it's pretty hard to grind it up. This is what I do:

• Get two sheet of napkins and sandwich the peen tong between the napkin. I used one sheet of paper towel and folded it in half and sandwiched the slab of sugar. Figure A and Figure B.
  
• Then I hammered every inch of the sugar slab creating many tiny pieces of sugar around the size of 1 - 1 1/2 cm. Figure C.
  
• Then I dropped it in my blender and blended it until it was powdery. Because the sugar has a bit of water, I suggest blending one slab at a time or else the heat from the machine can cause the sugar to melt together. Just dump the sugar you blended into a jar or a bag and blend again. You can store it in the refrigerator since it is a bit moisty. The finished product is in Figure D.
  

Nature's Path Cereal

Hello :D I have not updated in a long time. I'm terrible. School's a killer. Here's a list of all the vegan stuff for Nature's Path cold and hot cereal. If you haven't notice, they only list whether or not their food are vegetarian or not but not vegan. I'm a Nature's Path loving vegan and I hate idling in front of the cereal isle looking at all the ingredients on the cereal box. I've noticed that the only thing on the cereal that makes it not vegan is the honey. For Kashi it's both honey and dairy. They don't have any milk, whey or added vitamin D3. I've checked all the labels for the cereals. If you are uncertain you can look it up on their website Nature's Path and Kashi. I've provided this list of cereal because cereal is my breakfast staple, maybe it is your's too. You can just highlight the list, print it out and use it as a reference at your local supermarket.


VEGAN Nature's Path Cold Cereal

Flakes

• FlaxPlus Red Berry Crunch
• FlaxPlus Pumpkin Raisin Crunch
  
• FlaxPlus Raisin Bran (Not to be confused with the eco pack which contains honey)
• FlaxPlus Flakes
  
• Multigrain Flakes
• Millet Rice Flakes
  
• Mesa Sunrise Flakes
• Corn Flakes
  
• Synergy 8 Grain Flakes

Shaped

• EnviroKidz Panda Puffs
• EnviroKidz Orangutan O's
  
• EnviroKidzKoala Crisp
• EnviroKidz Gorilla Munch
• Crispy Rice
  
• SmartBran

Puffed (All)

• Corn Puffs
• Kamut Puffs
• Millet Puffs
• Rice Puffs

Shredded (All)

• Shredded Heritage Bites
• SHredded Oaty Bites

Optimum (All)

• Optimum Rebound
• Optimum Zen
• Optimum Slim
• Optimum Power

Granola

• Pomergran Plus Granola
  
• Peanut Butter Granola
  
• Acai Apple Granola
• GingerZing Granola
• Hemp Plus Granola
• Pumpkin FlaxPlus Granola

Eco-Pac

• EnviroKidz Koala Crisp
• EnviroKidz Gorilla Munch
• EnviroKidz Peanut Butter Panda Puff
• Corn Flakes
• Multigrain Oat Bran Flakes
• Millet Rice Flakes
• Mesa SunRise
• Kamut Krisp

VEGAN Nature's Path Hot Cereal (All)

• HempPlus Hot Oatmeal
• Multigrain Raisin Spice Hot Oatmeal
• Optimum Power Hot Oatmeal
• Optimum Zen Hot Oatmeal
• Variety Pack Hot Oatmeal
• Original Hot Oatmeal
• Apple Cinnamon Hot Oatmeal
• FlaxPlus Hot Oatmeal
• Maple Nut Hot Oatmeal
• Weil by Nature's Path Chocolada Almond Hot Oatmeal
• Weil by Nature's Path Veri Berry Hot Oatmeal

NOT VEGAN Nature's Path Cold Cereal

Flakes

• Spelt Flakes
• Honey'd Corn Flakes
• Heritage Flakes

Shaped

• Heritage O's

Granola

• Heritage Raspberry Granola
• Blueberry Muesli
• Heritage Muesli

Eco-Pac

• Honey'd Raisin Bran
• Honey'd Corn Flakes
• Heritage Flakes
• Heritage O's

VEGAN Kashi Cold and Hot Cereal

• Heart to Heart Oatmeal (All - Apple Cinnamon, Golden Brown Maple, Raisin Spice)
• Kashi Flakes 7 Whole Grain with Sesame
• Kashi Nuggets 7 Whole Grain
• Kashi Pilaf 7 Whole Grain
  
• Kashi Puff 7 Whole Grain
• Organic Promise (All - Autumn Wheat, Cinnamon Harvest, Strawberry Fields)
  

NOT VEGAN Kashi Hot and Cold Cereal

• GoLean Hot Cereal (All - Creamy Truely Vanilla, Hearty Honey Cinnamon)
  
• GoLean
• GoLean Crunch (All- Honey Almond Flax, Original)
• Good Friends Cereal (All - Cinna-Raisin Crunch, Original)
• Heart to Heart Cereal (All - Honey Toasted Oat, Oat Flakes & Wild Blueberry Clusters)
• Kashi Granola (All - Cocoa Beach, Mountain Medley, Orchard Spice, Summer Berry)
• Kashi Honey Puffs
• Mighty Bite Cereal
• Vive
  

NOTE :: All was checked on 03/13/2008 please check if the company have added new cereal or changed any ingredients. Please do inform me if any of these are wrong and need corrections. Thank you!

Valentines Day

Been busy hectic...midterms and and lots of test. In addition to work and school I have to do observations at a local high school for my secondary education minor. Well here is what I have hoarded up these past few weeks.

Valentine's day

Valentines day is such a commercialized holiday but however I too have became one of it's victim. If you truly love someone everyday should be valentines day well there shouldn't be an excuse to show your significant lover that you love them.
My boyfriend and I celebrated ours a month earlier buy building each other a matching bear from build a bear yay and I ended up baking him a vegan mini chocolate cake. It was fun :3 Being the poorly time managed person that I am, I wasn't able to finish the cake before hey came over but here's the finished product. The chocolate cake was actually part of the egg white substitute experiment. You can tell it's a bit dry by the appearance of the crumb.




Mango Lassi

I wanted to try the mango lassi at Dosa Hut so badly but it has dairy in it so I made my own. My b/f who tried both said that the taste is similar but it tasted a bit floury possibly from the soy yogurt. Personally I don't like silk soy yogurt it has a weird taste to it.


Yields about 5 cups, 109 Cal/Serving

1 Cup Soy Yogurt, Plain or Vanilla
1/2 Cup Soy milk, Plain
2 || 420g Mango, Large (preferably the orange skinned one)
+/- 3 Tbsp || Sugar, Granulated
a pinch of salt

• Peel and cut the mango into chunks, then puree the mango in a food processor and take out the fibers or you can use the blender. The orange skinned mango has a stronger mango taste and much sweeter.
  
• Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until everything is combined. If you are using vanilla yogurt add less sugar. The amount of sugar used will vary depending on how ripe the mango is.

Food Thermos

It is such a wonderful invention. It keeps your food warm for up to 8 hours but I have never waited that long before eating my food. It's great especially when you are on campus and do not want to buy expensive vegan food, if they have any that is. Mine has two tub to hold your food and it comes with a carrying bag. Most one person food thermos out there contain two food tubs unless you buy a huge one for a picnic. It may look small but it's really not. My parents though it was small but when I compared one of the tub to the bowl I eat dinner from, it's the same size. I think the depth of the tub is deceiving. It's not bad for it's price it ranges from $10-$50 dollars depending on the brand. I got mine for $11.99 at the Chinese supermarket. It's good enough for me, it keep my food warm for at least 5 hours and it's extremely cheap. You can buy it in Asian supermarkets but I believe they also have a few in Target. I think it's a great investment if you dont have the money to buy food when you are busy running around town or school.

Happy chinese new year!!!

I am so sorry for both waiting so long before posting and losing all the info I have prepared for this posts. College had just started and I was still trying to adjust to the workload and working and the optometrist. I am such a unorganized person!!! All my papers were thrown away by a family member for the New Years cleaning. sigh** However on the other hand, I think I found a egg white replacement!! WHOOPDIEE DOO MARSHMELLOWS FOR ALL!!! Don't think it can be baked for a pavlova though.

Pictures Pictures!!

I was trying to experiment and see what can happen but I never would've guessed it would resemble egg white so much that it can form that sift of a peak. In other words, what I'm trying to say is that I made a bunch and did not have a recipe for it so I ended up eating it and scaring my mom pretending to be a rabid dog. Ahhh all that air in my tummy. BurP**


What I had planned to post this week was LowFat Banana Raspberry Muffins and it actually had a nice crumb and it wasn't disgustingly soggy or any of that good stuff but unfortunate I lost it. Hopefully I can replicate this recipe again.

I'll just post pictures

More picture for the previous steam bun entry


The bun's really tender

The delcious sesame seed paste!

My would have been muffins


I like the crumb. It kinda reminds me of those Chinese fatt koh.

HUGEE bowl of fluff!!

More or less nice hole. Well the point is, is that it retains that hole and the fluff does not sink in like how a peak does not fall if the "egg whites" are stiff enough.

Yay it defies gravity!!

Home from Hyde Park

What a week! Even though I was home alone at my b/f's house all day while he went to school for 8 hours, I was very productive. I feel less bored there than I do at home. I feel so restricted at home because of my parents.

Here is what I have made during my stay upstate.

Chinese Steamed Buns
Had to try twice.
My first attempt...A tumorous kitty with sweet potato maple syrup filling.


2nd attempt back home...A normal looking kitty with some peanut butter and black sesame filling


I've learned from my mistake. DON'T OVER STUFF YOUR BUNS or they'll turn into fat tumorous buns.

Bun Recipe Yields 16 Buns 125 Cal/Bun

Yeast Mixture
60 mL || 1/4 Cup Water, 110F Warm Water
1 Tsp Sugar, Granulated
1/2 Tsp Active Yeast

Dough Mixture
150g || 1 1/4 Cup Bread Flour**
150g || 1 1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
28g || 2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
113mL Water, Warm
2 Tbsp Sugar
1/4 Tsp Salt

Filling

46g || 1/3 Cup Black Sesame Seed, Toasted*
32g || 2 Tbsp Peanut Butter, Creamy
25g || 2 Tbsp Sugar, Granulated
30mL || 2 Tbsp of Water

• Mix the sugar into the warm water and dissolve the yeast into the liquid.
• Let it stand for 8 minutes.
• Meanwhile mix all the flour sugar and salt together.
• Make a well in the middle and slowly add in the yeast mixture.
• Then slowly add in the oil while mixing with a spoon or spatula.
• After you add the oil slowly add in the water when all the flour are crumbly start mixing the dough with your hand.
• Continue adding the water until the dough becomes smooth and soft. (May need more or less water depending on the flour.)
• Knead the dough for 8 minutes.
• Cover the dough with a damp cloth and a plastic wrap. Let it double for 45 minutes in a warm place or until it passes the indentation test.
• While the dough is doubling make your filling by toasting your sesame seed @ 350F for 5 minutes stir it a bit and return to the oven or another 5 minutes.
• Blend the sesame seeds in a blender or processor until it becomes pasty. Then add in the water and blend until it is combined.
• Then add in the peanut butter and sugar and blend until everything forms a thick paste.
• Split the dough and filling into 16 even portion.
• Assemble by rounding one portion of the dough and flattening it. Be sure to make the edge much thinner than the middle.
• Put a dollop of the filling and pull the edge of the dough towards the middle and pinch to seal the end.
  
• Put the bun on a tiny piece of parchment paper. Continue to do that to all the portion of dough and filling.
  
• Cover it with a damp cloth and a plastic wrap to let it rest and go through it's last rise for about 30 minutes or until the dough had double.
• After it has double use a scissor to snip the dough to give it the buns point ears or spikes.
• Boil enough water in a big wok or large pot on med-high heat. When it is boiling put the buns in a dish over a steaming rack or you can put the buns in a steamer.
• Let it steam for 20 minutes and it will be throughly cooked.

Banana Mango Sherbet


I like the strawberry although it has nothing to do with the ice cream.

Spinach Broccoli Mushroom Soup


I like soup but I'm sick and tired of the creamy one. I need some soup that reminds me of my mom since I haven't had my mom's soup in so long since they're not VEGAN. My mom loves making broth soup, since he has never heard of creamy soup so I made this soup to remind myself of my mom's broth soup.

Vacation Upstate...banana brownies, asian puff pastry

I am currently on vacation at Hyde Park for a week since my b/f is currently going to CIA and he already started school while I still have several weeks left. He goes to school at 12:30 pm and comes home at 9 pm. So you can only imagine with can a girl be doing in his apartment all day. Well truthfully, I've been doing nothing...maybe some food blog reading and some baking. The apartment is pretty bad. The shower leaks so you hear water running all the time and the toilet flushes automatically and the oven dial does not have the temperature on it and sometimes the oven doesn't even heat up! With some experimentation, I figured out the oven temperature with a handy dandy oven thermometer. Alright on word with the food blogging.

Very Banana-ie Brownie with Options

Very Banana-ie brownie. More Banana-ie than chocolaty but I've made some adjustment to make it more chocolately. However the picture is of the very banana-ie brownie. Modified the recipe on Vegweb Chocolate Banana Brownie to suit the ingredients that we had.

Recipe Yields 36 1.5" x 1.5" pieces 70 Cal/ Bite size Piece
180g 1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
76g 2 2/3 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips or Blocks, Melted
347g 2 1/2 Large Banana, Riped and Mashed
300g 1 1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Tsp Salt
15mL 1 Tbsp Vanilla extract

• In a large bowl cream the sugar, mashed banana and melted chocolate together.
• Combine the vanilla extract.
• In a smaller bowl combine the dry ingredients together.
• Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet and combine.
• Pour it into a 9" x 9" pan and bake it in the oven for 400 F for 25-30 minutes.

Option : To make it more chocolaty use 142g 5 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips or Blocks instead of the 76g 2 2/3 oz and used 319g 2 1/3 Large Banana instead of the 347g 2 1/2.

Apple Raisin Chinese Puff Pastry

They are similar to the European puff pastry but not exactly. Instead of butter, lard and oil is mainly used for the fat. I got the recipe of the puff pastry from Cafe of the East. Normally when you go out to eat dimsum, they are filled with the mung bean, red bean paste, taro paste or lotus paste. Apparently being upstate, I don't have the luxury of being a walking distance from my local Asian market so I'll make a apple raisin filled ball.

I modify the puff pastry from Cafe of the East to fit the ingredients I had available.

Recipe Yields 20 Puff Pastry Ball 162 Cal/Pastry Puff Ball

Chinese Puff Pastry 122 cal/ Puff Pastry Dough
Wet Dough
200g 1 2/3 Cup All Purpose Flour
70g 1/3 Cup Shortening*
20g Sugar, Confectioner
+ - 100mL Water

Oil Dough
120g 1 Cup All Purpose Flour
60g 1/4 Cup + 2 Tsp Shortening*

* If you don't want to use the hydrogentated crap you can use expeller pressed oil like Earth Balance shortening and Spectrum shortening.

Filling
742g 3 1/2 Large Apples (I used gala)
85g 3 oz Raisins
177 3/4 Cup Cranberry Juice
1 Tbsp of Sugar, Granulated

To make the pastry dough

• First you need to make the wet dough by combining the sugar and the flour.
• Then cut in the shortening into the dough until all the crumbs are uniform in size.
• Slowly add the water as you mix the dough with your hand until it is smooth like the consistency of bread dough. Then let it rest for 30 minutes.
• Then make the oil dough by cutting in the shortening into the flour and knead it until it has the consistency of the wet dough. Add more shortening if you have to. Then let it rest for 30 minutes.

To make the filling

• Peel and core all the apples and dice them into about 1 cm cubes.
• While you are cubing the apples pour cranberry juice in a medium size pot and put in your raisins and let it simmer on medium heat.
• Then add in your apples and sugar and combine.
• Continue to simmer it until all juice reduces to nothing. Stir occasionally to make sure that the apples or raisin do not stick to your pot.

To assemble the apple raisin pastry

• please click on the picture to enlarge and see the visual aid.

• 1. Put the oil dough on a flatten wet dough.
  2. Wrap the oil dough with the wet dough and pinch the ends together
  3. Roll out the dough vertically.
  4. Roll the long dough downward into a long cylinder, resembling a cigar.
  5. Turn the horizontal cigar 90 degrees so that it is vertical.
  6. Roll out the cigar dough vertically.
  7. Roll the vertical dough downward into a cylinder again.
  8. Sit the cylinder upwards on your palm.
  9. Pinch up the ends so that it forms a ball.
  10. Situate the botto of the ball on your palm, so that the swirly pinched
  up ends are facing you and flatten the dough with your fingers. Make sure
  the edges are thinner than the middle and do not pull on the dough to
  flatten as it will pull apart the coil lamination you have just rolled out.
  11. Put the filling into the middle of the circular dough and pinch up the ends and round it into a ball.
• The dough doesn't spread so you can put it close together on a cookie sheet and bake it for 400 F for about 30 minutes.